


The Sisters' Promise

by Dathedr



Series: One Thousand and One Chaldean Nights [2]
Category: Fate/Grand Order, Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms, Fate/stay night (Visual Novel)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:01:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,502
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22031470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dathedr/pseuds/Dathedr
Summary: The twins who loved their sister.The little sister who protected them.A promise they made long ago.The tragedy that was forced unto them.A final meal before the end.
Series: One Thousand and One Chaldean Nights [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1571959
Kudos: 24





	The Sisters' Promise

_We'll always be with you._

_Until the end of time._

Those words had been spoken in what seemed to be an eternity ago, yet they rang in Euryale's ears as she traversed the lonely, desolate island.

How had they ended up here?

She, along with her sisters, had once been worshipped as goddesses, the perfect manifestations of men's desires. In those days, the world had seemed so beautiful, so full of hope.

How innocent, how foolish.

That world had been as short lived as a drop of morning dew. All it took was for great Poseidon to extend his hand towards their little sister. In doing so, he had roused Athena's wrath, but who could rebuke the lord of the seas? And so, the supposedly wise goddess had turned her vengeance to the least deserving of them all.

Poor little Medusa. So pure, so faultless. Doomed to become a monster. Exiled, by the duplicitous humans who had worshipped her just one day before.

Euryale had accompanied her sister, of course, along with her other self. They had not hesitated, not for a moment. That was what sisters did — stand with each other.

She jumped lightly over the broken statue of yet another hapless adventurer, one of many littering the surrounding landscape.

Or perhaps, she thought, 'hapless’ wasn’t quite the right word.

The man, like others before him, had to have come in search of glory and fame. Each had thought they would be the one.

The adventurer who slayed a monster, the hero who defeated Gorgon. 

The man who killed Medusa, a monster whose sight turns a man to stone, one who stood guard over two eternally youthful, beautiful goddesses. 

In cursing her sister, Great Athena had, unwittingly, crafted an irresistible tale for the greed of mankind. It was ironic, considering the goddess’ supposed wisdom. Or perhaps that, too, had been part of their doom.

The Shapeless Island had been beautiful, once, and green, filled to the brim with beautiful flowers and clear ponds. It had always a place of exile, for sure, but it was also a place of peace, where the three of them could live without worry.

All of that had ended with the humans.

Euryale felt no pity for them. No, she would see every human who dared disturb their peace suffer as the greed in their eyes slowly turned into desperation.

A tingling in her mind brought her back to reality.

Stheno was almost ready on the other side of the island. Her other self. Even this far away, they experienced the same things together, and Euryale could see that her sister had prepared her side of the feast well. She had tarried long enough. It was time to go.

It was time for their sister to feed.

She made her way past yet more statues, as well as the occasional skull. Those were Medusa's latest victims — as of late, simply turning men into stone had not been enough for their little sister, who had begun feasting on their deceased flesh.

Those, too, had declined in number as the island's reputation grew. These days, scarcely one came every month, and the few who did appear were usually the most desperate of them, men who wagered their lives in the hopes of getting a lucky strike upon the dreaded Gorgon, or by some miracle marry one of the beautiful twin goddesses.

Pathetic, pathetic. Why wouldn't the humans leave Euryale and her sisters alone? All they wanted was to live together, in peace, until the end of time. Was that too much to ask?

Euryale's feet stepped onto stone, breaking her out of the reverie. She had arrived in the temple, in the middle of the island.

Broken pillars lay strewn about her, the white marble a reminder of the days when the three of them had been worshipped as goddesses. The mighty columns had eventually fallen as well, on that rueful day when Medusa had finally succumbed to her unending hunger. Ruined, no more than memory. Just like their youth.

Stheno greeted her with a wave from the other side of the temple. They needed no words to communicate — the two shared nearly everything. Undoubtedly, her sister had been thinking of the same things Euryale had.

They nodded at each other, confirming that each had safely brought their part of the meal. All that remained was to deliver it to their sister.

The twins made their way to the center of the ruins, where the entrance to Medusa's lair was located. The tunnel had once been a great set of stairs, but years of use had smoothened its surface, and the weight of their sister's ever-growing body had scraped the layers of stone away, leaving a crust of dried mud in their place.

Cold air greeted them as they entered, bringing with it the stench of blood and death. The sound of their light footsteps echoed across the tunnel as the twins made their descent into the darkness.

"Ah, sister," Stheno finally spoke. "Woe is ours, for allowing this to come to pass."

Euryale smiled in answer, a sad, knowing smile.

"We did not ask to be protected," the other her continued. "But if it brought our sister happiness, we could turn a blind eye on the truth, or so we thought."

She was correct, of course. Though they had tried to pretend otherwise, neither could miss how Medusa had kept growing in both size and appetite, or how her body had started to transform — how it had started to _deform_.

And yet, they had hoped that perhaps, someday . . . 

No, that had been a desperate, foolish illusion. The great gods were wanton in their desires, but rarely did they look back or regret, or be moved to pity. 

But what else could they have done?

Euryale shifted slightly to the side, avoiding a shattered femur which was sticking out on one side of the wall. Skulls and other, smaller bones were scattered on the tunnel's opposing side, the flesh covering them long gone. The air got thicker from that point on, its foulness rising up to nearly unbearable levels.

And yet, the twins did not so much as flinch as they took one step after another, until they reached the huge cavern which lay at the tunnel's end.

A soft red light hung over the otherwise dark room, illuminating massive mounds of statues and skeletons alike. The ground was colored a deep red from the dried blood which had crusted over it, and here and there lay small black puddles, filled with liquids of death and decay.

The dead clung to the twins as they walked past, as if beckoning for them to join in the dance of Tartarus, but the filth slid off their white garments like water slid off a smooth rock. Such was the twins' curse, to stay eternally lovely and unblemished, to be gazed upon and desired.

Only one person had stood between them and such a fate. A single girl who loved them, who desperately tried to keep men away with nothing more than the gaze of her eyes.

That person was no more.

Medusa — Gorgon — turned towards them. No trace of their beloved sister remained in the monster's chilling, murderous gaze, or in the the thousand snakes which formed its gargantuan body. It was crude where she had been elegant; cruel where she had been gentle. And still, it had once been her.

"All she did, she did out of love for us," Euryale said softly. "That love alone had meaning. It had to. Otherwise, our sister . . . Medusa would have been gone for nothing. We can't let that happen. If nothing else."

Stheno looked at her, listening, understanding.

"All this time, we thought that we had been the ones to love her. Was that not why we had followed her here?"

Gorgon's snakes were roused, and they rose to her sides like wings, staring with hungry red eyes.

"But we were wrong. All this time, we were the ones loved by her."

Stheno nodded her agreement and extended her empty hands, which Euryale took. They brought no great feast fit for a king, nor an offering like those given to the gods. Not, even, the humble meal of a peasant.

They had come with nothing, save for their own bodies. Together, they gazed up at the monster, all that was left of their sister's love.

The time had come at long last.

The time to fulfill a promise, words which had been spoken an eternity ago.

"Farewell, sister."

They closed their eyes, silent as Gorgon descended upon them, even as the snakes slowly devoured them, the goddesses who were beautiful to the very end.

Just before everything turned to darkness, passed a simple memory. 

A day long ago, under the sunshine, surrounded by green grass and fresh flowers.

Three sisters, sitting next to one another, embracing each other with tears of joy.

_We'll always be with you._

_Until the end of time._

**Author's Note:**

> I made this because of that cameo in Babylonia. 
> 
> Hopefully, it managed to capture their disdain of the greater gods and the humans well enough, while still showing their sibling-loving side.
> 
> Of course, I did take some overall liberties, but I tried to keep mostly to existing lore.


End file.
